Question

1. What is ‘hope' being compared to in the first stanza?
2. How is the song of hope endless?
3. Explain the comparison in the first two verses.
4. What does the speaker mean by 'chilliest land' and 'strangest Sea'?
5. What is the figure of speech used in the poem throughout?​

Answer 1

Answer:

The speaker describes hope as a bird (“the thing with feathers”) that perches in the soul. There, it sings wordlessly and without pause. The song of hope sounds sweetest “in the Gale,” and it would require a terrifying storm to ever “abash the little Bird / That kept so many warm.” The speaker says that she has heard the bird of hope “in the chillest land— / And on the strangest Sea—”, but never, no matter how extreme the conditions, did it ever ask for a single crumb from her.